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Is it just me? or is Pokemon competitiveness losing its originality?

I've just started to get back into competitive battling and have noticed that literally every single person i battle is running some for of rain or sun team....

Whatever happened to 'randomway' mix ups of pokemon you liked the look of? enjoyed the different attack styles of? It seems battling has been ruined by everyone running slight variants of exactly the same team!

oh, yeah, it totally is. i can go on a huge rant about everyone and their grandparents running a rain team and spamming surf and water absorb, storm drain, whatever. but i wont. i really don't like drizzle/drought being in non-ubers.

It is quite sad really. I never go with the trends but this team I found I had to run some form of weather to combat rival weather teams which was sad. Though using swift swim kingdra on my sun team was an unusual idea that has payed off quite well.

On the one hand, half of the teams you see nowadays are some sort of weather or Volt-Turn team it seems. As far as individual sets and Pokemon go, however, I'd say that 5th Gen is the most creative metagame generation we've had. There are more options for Pokemon to choose from than ever, but what's even more important is the fact that there are far more OU viable Pokemon now then there have been in any other generation before. That in mind, it's far more likely for new creative, anti-metagame sets to spring forth now than ever.

Besides, if you think this is bad, try 1st Gen when it was an eat or be eaten by Psychics world, 2nd Gen where Snorlax was everywhere and stall was the golden standard, or late 4th Gen when nearly every team was Heatran/Gyarados/Shaymin/Flygon/filler/filler or something.

^ I play clear skies. Besides that, yes, I'd agree that there are many teams out there that follow the same base format, but there is still originality, even among weather teams (although sometimes that originality is very hard to find).

I will be less active as time goes on; I have many things to do to get into college and will be focusing on that, so if you don't hear from me for a while, just be patient. I will respond, but it may take some time.

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I never liked OU much, just to much of the same types of teams. Occasionally I'll play some OU with a niche poke like stoutland, or I'll just use whatever I feel like, like my Beartic team, but I always get less interested after that.

Not all of the other tiers are as bad though. Play some NU or something of to get tired of the Politoad/Scizor/Drag/Ferrothorn/ bs.

I'm no fan of overcentralization, but the reasons that some things are used so much are valid. Take Ubers, where Kyogre, a Pokemon that is able to 2HKO every Pokemon in the game that doesn't have an immunity to Water, is used on half of all teams and any team that wants to get anywhere needs a dedicated counter to it.

A lot of it just weather being that damn good. It's almost become the next stealth rock.

Originally Posted by bugcatchersdream

I'm no fan of overcentralization, but the reasons that some things are used so much are valid. Take Ubers, where Kyogre, a Pokemon that is able to 2HKO every Pokemon in the game that doesn't have an immunity to Water, is used on half of all teams and any team that wants to get anywhere needs a dedicated counter to it.

Which has given me an odd affinity to Choice Band Sceptile and Primeape, because they both deal with those two almost perfectly. But even then I'll either have to make a risky switch or give something up to get Sceptile in a safe spot to Leaf Blade, since I don't lead with it.

If you want to see Creative, try Ubers. Steel Arceus with Cosmic Power, Mew baton passing not Nasty Plot or Swords Dance but Iron Defense and Amnesia, or THUNDER WAVE GROUDON (I approve!) Really shows off all the game breakers Game Freak never considered, because, you know, they don't. Outside of Regigigas and Slaking where they deliberately build something amazing and neuter it with equal deliberation.

But after a while you'll wonder why you're playing anymore because of how overpowered everything is... of course you can say that about the 5th, and often the 4th, gen in general. Everything's gotten better, and too many things seem overpowered- but then I've been playing Ubers a lot lately.

^ Never underestimate the ability of 1 Megabyte to bring out every emotion imaginable.

As generations come, no, Pokémon gains more uniqueness. However, competitive battling shoves usage stats and the bitter taste of gimmicks down our throats. Luckily, these gimmicks are more viable in lower tiers.

Either have fun by doing things differently and be more likely to be crushed by your foes. Or stick to the system and savour the sweet taste of victory.

Yeah it really sucks. This is the reason why I don't play as much as I used to. Like someone already said, someone is either running a rain team, a scarf + volt switch/U turn spam team or a combination of the two.

I think its a matter of tinkering as you go. you may not have an original team but as you go along you start putting pieces together and end up with something that would be as great as bread and butter. of course you'd have to put in a lot of time and frankly I don't see a lot of players committed to that lofty endevour

I understand the frustration surrounding the popularity of weather teams, but why is Rain always the one that gets the most mentions? According to the latest stats, Sand was used nearly as much as Sun and Rain combined. It is pretty crazy when nearly half of teams (46.3% to be exact) are running some kind of weather, though.

I understand the frustration surrounding the popularity of weather teams, but why is Rain always the one that gets the most mentions? According to the latest stats, Sand was used nearly as much as Sun and Rain combined. It is pretty crazy when nearly half of teams (46.3% to be exact) are running some kind of weather, though.

Maybe the most annoying just because of things like Toxicroak and Ferrothorn in Rain stall, but most effective is debatable. Landorus running around in Sand is extremely effective, and there are plenty of sets that it can run to destroy teams on its own. There's also the fact that Tyranitar alone is an extremely effective Pursuit trapper and just bulky beast in general. Sand is also great offensive utility on its own, wearing down opponents little-by-little making them lost a bit of health every turn. Sun is also probably the most powerful when set up, with things like Venusaur running around with Sleep Powder, double speed, and +2 Atk and SpA after a Growth. There's also the fact that Fire types effectively lose their Water weakness and are more free to spam ridiculously powerful Fire attacks (i.e. Darmanitan's Sun-boosted Flare Blitz is one of the most dangerous attacks out there).